Happy Birthday Sara Sidle
by forensicsfan
Summary: Nick wants to help Sara celebrate her birthday.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own them, I didn't create them, and I don't profit from them, but as always coffee with George and Jorja would be nice.

**Author's Note:** I noticed that Sara's character turns 33 on September 16, 2004 and felt inspired to write this.

* * *

There was a glimmer of mischief in Nick's eyes as he glanced across the layout table at Sara who was looking intently at some of the evidence they had collected at a crime scene earlier that evening. "Hey, Sara?"

She glanced up with a slightly blank expression. "Yeah?"

He tried to restrain his impish smile. "Do you know what time it is?"

She rolled her eyes. There was a clock on the wall in the layout room, and Nick was sporting a watch that he'd gotten for his birthday just last month. "Are you having problems telling time?"

He tried to swallow his smile. "Answer the question. What time is it?" Nick was having a hard time hiding his amusement.

She glanced at the clock on the wall and smirked at him. "Midnight." She turned her attention back to the ticket stub that she had been examining. "Satisfied?"

He chuckled. "Not yet."

She glanced up and raised a single eyebrow.

"What's the date?" He could no longer restrain his grin.

Sara rolled her eyes at him before returning to her task. "You know, we have evidence to process." Her tone implied that while she found his little game amusing, her patience for it going any further was severely limited.

"Not until you tell me what the date is." Nick was insistent.

Finally, Sara glanced up and looked at him. "The sixteenth." It was at that moment that she finally understood what he was doing and an embarrassed smile crept across her face.

Nick leaned across the table and whispered to her conspiratorially. "Happy birthday." He winked.

Sara chuckled. "You are a nut." She turned her attention back to the ticket stub and then discarded it and picked up a paper clip.

Nick cleared his throat. "I noticed that you're off next shift."

Sara put the paper clip down and picked up a round plastic disk that appeared to be the lid from a film canister. "You're not trying to switch with me are you?"

He chuckled. "No. I was going to see if you had any plans."

She glanced up at him quizzically.

His smile belied the nervous feeling in his gut. "I have the night off too and I thought maybe I could take you out for your birthday." Truth be told, he'd had to do some serious wheeling and dealing with Warrick to get him to switch nights off. The only reason that Warrick had ultimately agreed was because Nick had told him that after four years of flirting he was planning on finally telling Sara how he felt about her.

Sara stood up straight and smiled. "I'd like that." She was thankful for the good friend that Nick was, and she tried to squash a fleeting thought she had that she wished that there could be more between them.

Nick grinned. "Good." He just stared at her for a long moment.

Just then, both of their pagers went off and the conversation was forgotten for the time being as they went to meet Brass who apparently had a new lead on their case.

* * *

Sara stifled a yawn as she pulled her jacket out of her locker and shut the door. The last half of the shift had seemed especially long and all she wanted to do was to go home and crash.

Nick sauntered into the locker room with a grin on his face. He seemed to puff his chest out a bit as he saw Sara. "So Sanders was pretty jealous that I get to take you out."

Sara chuckled softly and glanced up at Nick. For some reason she felt a little nervous. "What time do you want to get together?"

"I was thinking that I could pick you up at six." He looked at her expectantly.

A smile played at her lips and she felt color infuse her cheeks. "Six is good."

* * *

"I thought for sure that carrot was going to come out your nose with the way you were laughing." Nick teased Sara as he threaded his SUV through traffic. They had eaten dinner at a Thai restaurant and whether it was the way that Nick contorted his face as he took a particularly spicy bite or if it was what he was saying just before that which had Sara laughing so hard that she'd snorted, Nick was almost certain that he would have had to use the Heimlich maneuver if she'd kept it up much longer.

Sara chuckled. "It wasn't that bad." Truth be told, she had thought Nick looked perfectly ridiculous the way his cheeks expanded like a puffer fish as he tried to cool his tongue by quickly sucking air in and out.

"Just keep telling yourself that." Nick was thoroughly enjoying himself, but he still felt like his stomach was a ball of nerves as he hadn't worked up the courage yet to tell Sara how he was feeling about her.

They drove to the video store to rent a couple of new releases that neither one of them had had the time or inclination to see in the theater. As they stepped out of the video store it started to rain, something that it hadn't done in Vegas in weeks. By the time Nick pulled into Sara's apartment complex, the rain was coming down in a torrential downpour. He circled the lot three times before he finally decided that he was going to have to park around the corner and they'd have to make a run for it.

By the time they got to her door, they were both soaked to the skin, their hair plastered to their heads and dripping everywhere. Sara glanced at Nick and smirked as they entered her apartment. "All we need now is thunder and lightning."

As if on cue, lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in the distance causing her lights to flicker. Nick smirked back at her. "Way to go, Sidle."

Sara responded with mock indignation as a rivulet of water ran down her cheek. "Oh, so this is my fault now is it?"

He waggled his eyebrows at her bedraggled appearance blinking as water dripped into his eyes. "Well it is your birthday."

She stepped towards him smirking. "Well you're the one who invited me out." She raised both eyebrows in a sort of challenge.

He grinned, trying hard to keep from brushing a wet curl off of her face. "Yes I did." He took a step closer to her.

"I think that makes this your fault." She was having a hard time not staring at how well defined his chest was as his wet shirt clung to it.

Nick had a thoughtful expression on his face. "I suppose I should at least give you your birthday present then."

Sara was a bit taken aback and couldn't help but blush a little. "You got me a present?"

Nick nodded nervously and he swallowed hard as he reached out and finally pushed the errant curl out of her face. "Yeah, I did."

Sara's eyes were wide and a smile began to spread across her face as Nick trailed his fingers down her cheek. She looked at him intently. "What is it?"

Nick's eyes seemed to be opened to his soul as he answered her question in a loud whisper. "My heart." He moved towards her tentatively and as her eyes fluttered shut, he smiled and then softly kissed her.

For Sara the moment almost seemed to be suspended in time as she took in the sensation of Nick's lips against hers and the taste of the rainwater running down her face as it mingled with the flavor of him. Her eyes slowly opened as Nick stepped away a few moments later and a smile spread across her face as her gaze connected with his.

As if noticing for the first time, Sara reached out and touched Nick's shirt. "You're all wet."

He chuckled softly. "So are you."

"You need to get out of these before you catch a cold." A mischievous grin began to form on Sara's face as she reached for the hem of his shirt and began to tug it upward, peeling it off of him.

As his shirt landed on the floor, Nick smirked at her, reaching for the hem of her shirt. "I wouldn't want you to catch a cold either."

* * *

Much later, as they lay curled together under the warmth of the comforter on her bed, Sara whispered. "Nick?"

He hugged her close and whispered in her ear. "Yeah?"

She snuggled against him, a smile on her face. "I want to give you my heart too."

Nick grinned widely. "Happy birthday, Sara."

_**The End. **_


End file.
